


Rematch

by Lazy_Poppy



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi Goro Lives, Akechi Goro Needs a Hug, Angst with a Happy Ending, Attempt to character study, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, My First AO3 Post, No beta we die like metaverse shadows, Reliable Futaba, So do Akira, Sojiro is there for like a sec, Spoiler: P5R, They both need therapy, They'll get better, supportive morgana
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-18 00:40:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28983519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lazy_Poppy/pseuds/Lazy_Poppy
Summary: If anything, after that time at the TV station, aside from first impressions, pancakes and shaking hands, Akira was sure that he would have recognized Akechi's frame anywhere, amidst a crowd, during the stormiest day.That's why in the current moment, Akira wouldn't doubt his sight.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 9
Kudos: 45





	Rematch

**Author's Note:**

> Story edited, thanks to aikosai! :)

The first time Kurusu Akira met Akechi Goro, he thought he was fierce.  
And beautiful.   
Not simply handsome but beautiful, that kind of beauty that comes with passion and abnegation.   
In retrospect, it was an odd first impression, given the gentlemanly, quite naive type he pretended to be.   
Maybe Akira was able to see right through him since the very start, while talking of delicious pancakes he shouldn't even have heard about to begin with. At least, the thought occurred to him, during their collaborationship or whatever Futaba used to call it.   
While in juvie, it more than occured. Akira clung onto it with all his might, and he didn't even know why.   
It was useless, anyway, thinking of how deep their bond might have been now that Goro was... 

Still, he kept thinking about it, sometimes even lingering on it. It used to happen often throughout the year he spent in his hometown, while planning his comeback to Tokyo, where he already had a place to stay, people waiting for him, somewhere he belongs.   
If anything, after that time at the TV station, aside from first impressions, pancakes and shaking hands, Akira was sure that he would have recognized Akechi's frame anywhere, amidst a crowd, during the stormiest day.   
That's why in the current moment, Akira wouldn't doubt his sight. There's no storm, let alone a crowd, so it's very simple to distinguish the figure filling the space where the door used to be.   
Back then, when he was just released, he would have labeled it an hallucination, a product of his tired brain, after never ending days of hope and despair, fantasies and tears.   
And desire plead to an unknown superior presence, that Akira refused to call a god of whatever.   
And probably that was Akechi Goro to him. A desire. A desire he never really stopped to believe in. 

Morgana knows. He saw everything, he saw him at his worst. And, Akira still feels ashamed, he saw right through him that day, when Akira tried to reactivate the Navi, when Akira looked desperately for a way to go back in the Metaverse.   
It didn't make any sense. The Metaverse was gone, so was Goro, and the former was definetly a good thing but some days, in which Akira couldn't even manage himself out of his room, the world seemed so horrofically wrong that going back there couldn't be such an awful idea.

Truthfully, it seemed a great one to him. 

If the Metaverse was still there, maybe Goro was still there. If not, he could, at least, cease to be Akira for a while and rather be Joker, the unbreakable, unfathomable leader of the Phantom Thieves. 

But it didn't make any sense and, anyway, he never found a way. 

Going back to Tokyo prompts the healing. Everybody has been waiting for them, arms wide open, except that they weren't, well, everybody. But Akira was and still is grateful. Grateful for and to his friends, for and to Morgana, for and to Sojiro that, of course, has taken him back at Leblanc, to work and live.   
And here he stands, behind the counter, questioning his mental health.   
His heart has recognized him before his brain, leaping from his chest to his throat, and Akira is pouring the content of the kettle on the countertop, spectacularly missing the cups. He can't take his eyes off of him.   
"Akira! Hot!" Morgana shrieks and jerks in his spot, prompting Akira to jerk himself.   
"Oh s-sorry, Mona" he rapidly rebalances the kettle in his grasp, voice a wavering whisper, blinking twice.   
But even after he blinks, Goro is still here and something is clicking inside Akira in just the right place. His heart, probably.   
He isn't sure this is the right way to feel, because he can clearly see that something is off.   
In Goro's widen eyes, something is off, aside the breathless shock depicted all over his face.   
Or more than off, maybe lacking. Yes, something is lacking in his eyes but Akira doesn't have time to fully detect what it is when Goro spins on his heels, after a stern "I apologize for intruding"

He is gone. 

The bell jingles, the door shuts with a muffled sound and the hot water keep dripping from the countertop.

And Goro is gone. Again. 

"Kid" Sojiro's voice pierces through the stillness of Akira's brain and the bell jingles again, when Akira speeds outside of LeBlanc. 

He's ready. 

Ready to comb through all Yongen-Jaya, if not Tokyo in its enterity, to find him. Ready to do anything to bring him ba...   
Akira has to stop so suddenly he almost falls face down. Goro is there, few steps away, rooted to the spot, so close Akira could reach him just by stretching his arm. 

Goro is there, solid and concrete. 

Goro is alive. 

And trembling.   
He's trembling so much that it hurts and Akira can't quite resist the urge to wrap his arms around him, as tight as he can. 

  
This shouldn't have happened. 

Goro didn't consider this possibility not even in the worst case scenario. 

This shouldn't have happened. 

He knows, for a matter of fact, that the graduation ceremony at the school Akira attended in his hometown still has to be held.  
Now, Goro also knows, for a matter of fact, that Akira has decided to ditch the ceremony. 

This shouldn't have happened. 

He planned it.   
Going seeing Sojiro, letting him know he's alive, casually asking how's Akira, waiting for eventually Sojiro informing his old rival he's alive, coming back to LeBlanc when Akira's there, ordering a cup of coffee, apologizing, thanking him and then disappearing for the rest of his life. 

He planned it thoroughly. 

Akira wasn't supposed to be already in Tokyo, let alone at LeBlanc the day Goro has mustered up enough courage to show his face.   
It's the worst timing ever and now Goro needs to get a hold of himself.   
He just doesn't know how.   
He has always known meet Akira would cause such a surge of emotions and bottled up feelings. But he was unprepared.   
He can't run away. Not without an explanation of sort or, at least, a word to him. Not now that Akira has seen him.   
He can't and he doesn't want to, unless Akira himself tells him to just leave and never show up again. 

"Goro..."

Which likely he is going to do. 

"I shouldn't have come"  
"Yes you _should_ "

Goro flinches, at the unsteady note in Akira's voice.   
He inhales deeply. 

"Kurusu..."  
"It's _Akira_ "

  
Akira is panicking.   
He has always panicked.   
When he confronted Shido for the first time, without knowing that was Shido and who was Shido anyway, he panicked.   
When he arrived in Tokyo, at LeBlanc, at Shujin, he was utterly panicking.   
When he became a Phantom Thief, the leader of them, and fought the shadows in the Metaverse. A lot of panic, back then.   
He always succesfully shielded himself behind his cool and collected demenour. Not in order to fool his own friends but because he, first and foremost, needed to believe to be unyelding.   
But then the Phantom Thieves were disbanded, the Metaverse collapsed, he turned himself in and the panicking worsened.   
A lot.   
He had to find a way to cope with it and he did and now it has become something rather mechanical.   
He doesn't need to think while he reaches for the leather glove always tucked in his pocket.   
"Goro" he calls again and walks up to him, putting the glove on. It makes him feel stronger and safer. 

It fits perfectly. 

Goro's glove fits perfeclty on his hand, Goro's hand would have fit perfectly in his. 

"Goro, please..."

Goro's hand _may_ fit perfectly in his. 

"...come in"

  
Goro stares in utter shock, speechless and breathless, to Akira's gloved hand on his shoulder.   
He kept his glove.   
Akira kept his promise, his glove and somehow has kept him _alive_.   
He didn't give up on him. Not yet. Not ever.   
"Goro, come in" Akira insists, voice soft, grip firm.   
"For what?!" Goro snaps but Akira doesn't falter.   
He won't let him go so easily. He won't let him fall again.   
"A cup of coffee" the response arrives with no hesitations. "And a talk, and maybe..."  
Akira holds Goro's gaze and finally catches it. He now can pinpoint what is lacking in it. There's no fieriness, in Goro eyes, not even a little trace.   
But Akira goes on, nevertheless.   
"...a rematch"  
Goro stares, in disbilief.   
A rematch.   
Darts, billiards, chess, some silly game at the arcade. Happy memories flash through Goro's head, reminded him of a time that couldn't have been possibly happy.   
But it was, somehow.   
Those memories are happy, Goro can't deny it.  
And that's when Akechi Goro bursts out into laughter. 

A rematch. 

He said him that he hated him, tried to kill him twice, then asked him to face his worst nightmare, knowing how easily Shido could have taken him and his friends down, and here he is, proposing a rematch.   
Like two friends reunited, looking forward to just catch up. 

So tipically Kurusu Akira. 

"You must be... joking..."

Then something is splashing on Goro's cheeks and everything is blurred and Akira's grip is tightening. 

"You c-can't be... serious..."

But he is. Akira is serious and kind and won't give up on him. 

Not now. Not ever. 

Goro doesn't resist when shoved into the warmest embrace he has ever received, fisting his hands in the back of Akira's shirt. 

There are so many things he wants to say to him.   
That he was so afraid all the time after waking up outside the Meraverse, that he is so sorry for lying, that the mere thought of having attempted on his life is enough to make him throw up, that he is glad he failed, that he doesn't want to go back to a life of loneliness but be without Akira makes him feel lonely even amidst a crowd.

That he doesn't and could never hate him. 

There are so many things but all he can manage out of his lips are broken "sorry" and Akira's name, hiccuped painfully against Akira's chest.   
"I'm here" gentle fingers run through honeyed auburn hair. "Goro, I'm here, you're here" soft lips brush against his ear. "We'll get better"  
A promise.   
They're here. Together. 

  
Akira can swear he has never felt so complete and at the same time shattered to pieces as he feels in the very moment, with Goro pouring his soul out in tears, in his arms.   
And it is perfectly fine with him, because now they can heal. Together.   


* * *

  
Akira is panicking.   
Morgana can see it easily.   
Akira is definitely panicking. 

"I'm not panicking, okay?" Akira states, smashing the pot where he's making the prep for tomorrow curry. They're gonna have some take-away ramen for dinner.   
Hopefully so. 

"I can wait"  
"Mona, I'm not panicking"  
"I'm sure he's coming"  
"I know!" he snaps and immediately comes up to his senses. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude or..."  
"Akira"  
Akira raises his head to meet his not-cat's blue eyes. "He's coming. I can sense it" Morgana repeats, vibrating his tail.   
Akira nods. 

He knows, he wants to believe it and to have faith in him. The feeling in his gut isn't telling him otherwise, so he should really calm down.   
Morgana is right. 

"You should go, Sojiro and Futaba are waiting for you"  
"Why, of course they are waiting for me, I'm the guest of honor"  
Akira furrows his brows. "We have dinner there every night"  
"So what? Are you implying I'm not a guest or I'm not honorable"  
"I wouldn't dare"  
"By the way, since I feel generous tonight, I can wait a bit longer"  
"No, really... I mean, thank you of course, but I'll..." Akira trails off and diverts his gaze from him. "I've got the glove"  
Morgana stares at him knowingly for a handful of seconds and Akira sighs. He's such a mess.   
"I'll go then" Morgana announces, standing up and approaching the end of the counter to jump down. "But if you need anything, please call"  
"I will" Akira reassures him and with a jump and a chime, Morgana is gone and Akira is alone. 

He must stay calm.   
Morgana is right.   
There are no reason to fear Goro will back out.  
After crying in his arms, Goro accepted that cup of coffee, they chatted a bit awkwardly, a bit seriously, a bit jokingly, and in the end they exchanged numbers.   
Truthfully, they still have a plethora of subject to discuss but they both agreed to take their time and not rush it, 'cause now they can.   
Nevertheless, they texted a lot.   
Or, to be more precise, Akira texted him a lot and Goro always answered. 

Akira proposed to meet again the day after their reunion, which is the day before the current one, but Goro had to decline. He had his shift at the bookstore and then therapy, and therapy days don't leave him enough energy to do anything else but crawling in his bed and passing out.

Akira wasn't glad to hear that, even though he's glad Goro is seeking help and that he feels like being open to him.   
So they settled for today, after LeBlanc closure hour, and Goro is late. 

And Akira... Akira is definitely panicking and spiralling.

He is afraid of having been too pushy but, should this be the case, Goro would have stop answering or tell him directly.   
In all likelihood, Goro is just late for some pragmatic contigencies.   
A last-minute-way-too-talkative client, the sudden decision to take a shower before going there and he may have run out of hot water, an accident in the underground, even though there were no more since... well, since Goro put a stop to mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns. 

He just hopes Goro didn't repent to have shown up and now he's fleeing because he doesn't deserve forgiveness nor love and, okay, now Akira's really panicking, which he shouldn't anyway because he can immediately put Futaba on his track through his cell phone number, before Goro gets rid of it and that's when the LeBlanc bell chimes, for Akira's mental sanity's sake.   
He almost can't take the rush of relief that showers upon him, leaving him a bit dizzy. A lot to do here, to get better too, it seems. 

"I apologize for the delay"  
Akira takes a moment to take completely in Goro's presence, hair tied up in a ponytail, a box in his hands.   
"Hi" he manages, lips slightly parted and Goro offers a little, heartfelt smile.   
"Hello"  
"You okay?" Akira asks, slowly coming up to his senses.   
"Yes, how I said, I apologize. I stop on my way here to purchase a couple of uh... items"  
"Huh?" Akira arches his eyebrows, genuinly curious.   
He carefully tracks Goro's every movements, as he places the box on a stool and reach for its content. 

Akira's heart skips a beat when he recognizes a chessboard and a dart board, layed on the counter with almost sacred care by Goro. And it speeds up at a worrying pace, when Akira meets his eyes.   
"I thought you may appreciate a... well..."  
"A rematch" Akira offers, a nonsensical way too happy grin curling his lips.   
He's still holding Goro's gaze, lingering longingly on what he can detects there.H

He doesn't know how but, among the deluge of emotions flashing at the bottom of Goro's eyes, Akira can tell apart the tiniest, still shiniest spark of fieriness. 

Akechi Goro is back.   
He is back into his life.   
And Akira doesn't intend to let him slip away again, for anything in the multiverse. 

**Author's Note:**

> Ehm, hello!  
> This my first english fic ever and also the first one for this fandom. I'm no native speaker and I had a hard time with present perfect and past simple writing this, I hope I didn't mess up too much.  
> I haven't finish P5R yet but I spoilered myself the world, so here I am!  
> Thank you for reading :)


End file.
